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Making Waves on the Air: Local Radio Show Reaches National Audience

Posted on: Friday, 16 September 2005, 00:00 CDT

Sep. 15--Amarillo is making waves in the national media, and the source is Paul Anderson.

His three-hour talk show -- "The Source With Paul Anderson" -- is syndicated nationally and hits the radio waves at 7:06 p.m. every Sunday. It airs locally on KIXZ 940 AM and KJRT 88.3 FM. Billed as a forum for current affairs, global events, culture, religion and politics, the program is distributed by Salem Radio Network.

Carried on about 40 stations nationwide, "The Source" reaches listeners as distant as Minnesota and Pennsylvania from Amarillo's Clear Channel studio near 34th Avenue and Bell Street.

Bill Sexton, former executive director of the Texas Panhandle Association of Broadcasters, said "The Source" may be a first for Amarillo.

"I don't know of anyone other than Paul who in recent memory has gone national from Amarillo," Sexton said.

Anderson has hosted the program since 1999, and this month marks its one-year anniversary of being nationally syndicated. The talk-show host started his radio career in 1994 without any background or training.

He simply wanted to have a program where he could talk about what people believe, and he thought radio was the best way to reach people, he said.

"I just got out there and flubbed my way through," he said. Anderson's show has a conservative agenda, but its guests have spanned the political spectrum.

Interview subjects have included right-wing notables Oliver North, Ann Coulter and Casper Wienberger as well as media figures such as Michael Medved and John Stossel. A recent guest from the left, Claudia Stravato of Planned Parenthood of Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle, commended Anderson for his preparation but criticized his sensitivity. Anderson had compiled information about Planned Parenthood's finances, and he confronted Stravato on the air with knowledge of the agency's expenses and loans.

Stravato took exception when he read aloud the names of Planned Parenthood workers and their salaries.

"I will have to give him an A on knowing everything about every penny we've ever touched in the past 10 years," Stravato said.

"But I have to give him an F for caring about the privacy of people he doesn't even know."

Anderson credits his executive producer, Vicki Hadaway, for the big-name guests he has been able to interview. "We do most of it by phone," she said. "It's fascinating. Some of these people you see on top news programs;t they can seem real hard-hitting. But they are really nice people, neat to talk to."

Anderson said he particularly enjoyed interviewing Max Baer Jr., Jethro Bodine of "The Beverly Hillbillies," who has been on Anderson's show several times.

Most recently, Baer was on to promote a new casino he was opening in Lake Tahoe, Nev.

But much of the conversation was Baer berating director Ron Howard for portraying Baer's father, a former heavyweight boxing champion, as a villainous person in the movie "Cinderella Man."

"He was incensed," Anderson said. "He didn't feel Ron Howard was an honorable guy in that."

Anderson compared his interview of Southern musician Charlie Daniels with sitting on a front porch drinking ice tea and watching the world go by.

While Anderson seems to enjoy the intimate aspect of radio, he's wowed by its vastness.

He recently took a call from a woman commuting between towns in Oregon, who wanted to add her two cents to a discussion on spanking.

"You never know who's listening," Anderson said.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Amarillo Globe-News, Texas

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Source: Amarillo Globe-News

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